Santiponce Itálica

Heritage

An immense legacy waiting to be discovered

Church of San Juan Bautista

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The parish church of San Juan Bautista was designed by the architect Vicente Traver Tomás and has a 12 by 40-metre Latin cross floor plan, with a semicircular apse and a vault divided into sections by pilasters and ribbed arches. Externally, its harmonious and well-proportioned design is evident.

The building is covered with a gabled roof and has a 34-metre-high brick bell tower with 8 openings for bells and topped by a weather vane with a cross.

This church was built in one year, being inaugurated on 24 June 1929, during the Universal Exposition, with the attendance of Cardinal Illundain and the authorities of the time. Its main façade is made of exposed brick in the neo-Mudejar style, a Gothic imitation found in many churches in Seville. The rose window and the blue and white Sevillian tile tympanum representing the Annunciation are in this style.

At the High Altar, San Juan Bautista, a carving restored by Francisco Buíza, is venerated in a golden and mahogany altarpiece, illuminated by modernist skylights. On the Gospel side, there is a chapel dedicated to the Virgen de la Paz, patron saint of the town, along with the Sacramental Chapel restored in 1957.

Another noteworthy feature is the Baptismal Chapel, which is closed by a Sevillian wrought-iron grille and contains the Font, which according to travellers and historians worked miracles on the eve of Easter Saturday. The Font is made of white jasper in the shape of a cross and is believed to date back to the 15th century.      

On the Epistle side, we have the 18th-century Chapel of the Virgen de los Dolores, by an anonymous author, and the Cristo del Amor, by Manuel Vergara.

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